This, you will easily guess, is an
undertaking
exactly to my
taste.
taste.
Robert Burns
Nicol, and all the circle of our common
friends.
P. S. I shall be in Edinburgh about the latter end of July.
R. B.
* * * * *
LXVI.
TO MR. JAMES CANDLISH.
[Candlish was a classic scholar, but had a love for the songs of
Scotland, as well as for the poetry of Greece and Rome. ]
_Edinburgh, 1787. _
MY DEAR FRIEND,
If once I were gone from this scene of hurry and dissipation, I
promise myself the pleasure of that correspondence being renewed
which has been so long broken. At present I have time for nothing.
Dissipation and business engross every moment. I am engaged in
assisting an honest Scotch enthusiast,[174] a friend of mine, who is an
engraver, and has taken it into his head to publish a collection of
all our songs set to music, of which the words and music are done by
Scotsmen.
This, you will easily guess, is an undertaking exactly to my
taste. I have collected, begged, borrowed, and stolen, all the songs I
could meet with. Pompey's Ghost, words and music, I beg from you
immediately, to go into his second number: the first is already
published. I shall show you the first number when I see you in
Glasgow, which will be in a fortnight or less. Do be so kind as to
send me the song in a day or two; you cannot imagine how much it will
oblige me.
Direct to me at Mr. W. Cruikshank's, St. James's Square, New Town,
Edinburgh.
R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 174: Johnson, the publisher and proprietor of the Musical
Museum. ]
* * * * *
LXVII.
TO ROBERT AINSLIE, ESQ.
["Burns had a memory stored with the finest poetical passages, which
he was in the habit of quoting most aptly in his correspondence with
his friends: and he delighted also in repeating them in the company of
those friends who enjoyed them. " These are the words of Ainslie, of
Berrywell, to whom this letter in addressed.
friends.
P. S. I shall be in Edinburgh about the latter end of July.
R. B.
* * * * *
LXVI.
TO MR. JAMES CANDLISH.
[Candlish was a classic scholar, but had a love for the songs of
Scotland, as well as for the poetry of Greece and Rome. ]
_Edinburgh, 1787. _
MY DEAR FRIEND,
If once I were gone from this scene of hurry and dissipation, I
promise myself the pleasure of that correspondence being renewed
which has been so long broken. At present I have time for nothing.
Dissipation and business engross every moment. I am engaged in
assisting an honest Scotch enthusiast,[174] a friend of mine, who is an
engraver, and has taken it into his head to publish a collection of
all our songs set to music, of which the words and music are done by
Scotsmen.
This, you will easily guess, is an undertaking exactly to my
taste. I have collected, begged, borrowed, and stolen, all the songs I
could meet with. Pompey's Ghost, words and music, I beg from you
immediately, to go into his second number: the first is already
published. I shall show you the first number when I see you in
Glasgow, which will be in a fortnight or less. Do be so kind as to
send me the song in a day or two; you cannot imagine how much it will
oblige me.
Direct to me at Mr. W. Cruikshank's, St. James's Square, New Town,
Edinburgh.
R. B.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 174: Johnson, the publisher and proprietor of the Musical
Museum. ]
* * * * *
LXVII.
TO ROBERT AINSLIE, ESQ.
["Burns had a memory stored with the finest poetical passages, which
he was in the habit of quoting most aptly in his correspondence with
his friends: and he delighted also in repeating them in the company of
those friends who enjoyed them. " These are the words of Ainslie, of
Berrywell, to whom this letter in addressed.
